This project's main goal was to develop an analytical
framework that could be used for analysis of rare crimes observed at
local (intra-city) levels of geographic aggregation. To demonstrate the
application of this framework to a real-world issue, this project
analyzed the occurrence of different types of homicide at both the
census tract and neighborhood cluster level in Chicago. Homicide counts
for Chicago's 865 census tracts for 1989-1991 were obtained from
HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO, 1965-1995 (ICPSR 6399), Part 1: Victim Level D... (more info)

This project's main goal was to develop an analytical
framework that could be used for analysis of rare crimes observed at
local (intra-city) levels of geographic aggregation. To demonstrate the
application of this framework to a real-world issue, this project
analyzed the occurrence of different types of homicide at both the
census tract and neighborhood cluster level in Chicago. Homicide counts
for Chicago's 865 census tracts for 1989-1991 were obtained from
HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO, 1965-1995 (ICPSR 6399), Part 1: Victim Level Data.
The types of homicide examined were gang-related, instrumental,
family-related expressive, known person expressive, stranger expressive,
and other. Demographic and socioeconomic data at the census tract level
for the year 1990 were obtained from the Neighborhood Change Database
(NCDB) at the Urban Institute. Part 1 contains these data, as initially
obtained, at the census tract level. Part 2 contains an aggregated
version of the same data for Chicago's 343 neighborhood clusters as
defined by the Project on Human Development in Chicago's Neighborhoods.

Guidelines for Applying for Restricted Data

Before you begin an application you will need the following information to complete the form

General Requirements:

appointment at research institution; appointment must be under the jurisdiction of the receiving institution

degree requirements (possibly doctorate)

Must be submitted:

project description

IRB approval

approved security plan

roster of research and IT staff who can access or view the data or computer where data are hosted.

confidentiality pledges for all people on roster

Some require:

CV's

A downloadable version of data for this study is available however, certain identifying information in the downloadable version may have been masked or edited to protect respondent privacy. Additional data not included in the downloadable version are available in a restricted version of this data collection. For more information about the differences between the downloadable data and the restricted data for this study, please refer to the codebook notes section of the PDF codebook. Users interested in obtaining restricted data must complete and sign a Restricted Data Use Agreement, describe the research project and data protection plan, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Any public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public.
Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Universe:
Part 1: Chicago's 1990 census tracts. Part 2: Chicago's
neighborhood clusters as defined by the Project on Human Development in
Chicago's Neighborhoods.

Data Types:
aggregate data

Data Collection Notes:

The user guide and codebook are provided by ICPSR as
Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The PDF file format was developed
by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader
software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain
a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
This project's main goal was to develop an
analytical framework that could be used for analysis of rare crimes
observed at local (intra-city) levels of geographic aggregation. To
demonstrate the application of this framework to a real-world issue,
this project analyzed the occurrence of different types of homicide at
both the census tract and neighborhood cluster level in Chicago. For the
years of the study Chicago had 865 census tracts and 343 neighborhood
clusters as defined by the Project on Human Development in Chicago's
Neighborhoods. The types of homicide examined were gang-related,
instrumental, family-related expressive, known person expressive,
stranger expressive, and other. The study asked (1) How do the
socio-economic and demographic characteristics in an area affect the
number of homicides that a community can expect to experience? (2) To
what extent are these links specific to homicide type? and (3) Does the
strength of these links depend on whether the census tract or
neighborhood cluster is the geographic unit used in the analysis?

Study Design:
Homicide counts for Chicago's 865 census tracts for
1989-1991 were obtained from HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO, 1965-1995 (ICPSR
6399), Part 1: Victim Level Data. The homicides were originally
classified into ten categories: gang-related, sexual assault,
instrumental, spousal attack, child abuse, other family expressive,
other known expressive, stranger expressive, other, and mystery. For the
purposes of this study the sexual assault, child abuse, and other family
expressive were collapsed into a family-related expressive category and
homicides classified as sexual assault or mystery were added to the
category called other. Demographic and socioeconomic data at the census
tract level were obtained from the Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB)
at the Urban Institute for the year 1990 (or as close as possible to
it). Data in the NCDB are based on information gathered by the United
States Census Bureau in its decennial censuses. Part 1 contains these
data, as initially obtained, at the census tract level. Part 2 contains
these data aggregated up to the neighborhood cluster level. The mapping
of the census tracts to the relevant neighborhood clusters was obtained
from staff at the Project on Human Development in Chicago's
Neighborhoods and was used with their permission. Some census tracts had
missing information for some of the demographic and socioeconomic
variables. This project used simple mean imputations to replace missing
values at the census tract level. Missing values for a variable in a
given census tract were set equal to the mean of non-missing values for
all census tracts in the same neighborhood cluster as the census tract
missing the desired information. This resulted in a sample with no
missing information at the census tract level. As a result, when
aggregating to the neighborhood cluster level, no missing data
imputations needed to be performed.

Sample:
inap.

Data Source:

Data on homicide counts were obtained from HOMICIDES IN
CHICAGO, 1965-1995 (ICPSR 6399), Part 1: Victim Level Data. Data on
demographic and socioeconomic characteristics were obtained from the
Neighborhood Change Database maintained by the Urban Institute.

Description of Variables:
Part 1 contains the following information for each of
Chicago's census tracts: counts of all homicides, gang-related
homicides, instrumental homicides, family homicides, known person
homicides, stranger homicides, other homicides, hispanics as a
percentage of the population, blacks as a percentage of the population,
percent of female-headed households with kids, unemployment rate,
poverty rate, percent of nonfamily households, young males as a
percentage of the population, residential stability, natural log of the
population, and a resource deprivation index. There are also variables
corresponding to each census tract that indicate which of the other
census tracts it borders and its distance in miles from each of the
other census tracts. Part 2 contains the same information at the
neighborhood cluster level.

Response Rates:
Not applicable

Presence of Common Scales:
Measures of residential stability and resource deprivation are
included in Parts 1 and 2.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2004-10-08

Version History:

2006-03-30 File UG4079.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB4079.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.

Download Statistics

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of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

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